Upcycled Xmas Cookie Box

 A few years ago I discovered panettone bread in a box at Ross,  It was a huge loaf that made excellent bread pudding. Amazingly, the bread stays fresh for a very long time and can be frozen.  This year I found mini panettone bread in the cutest boxes.  I couldn't bear to toss the boxes after devouring the contents so in defense of my hoarding gene, I  decided to upcycled them. (That's a fancy way to say decorate and repurpose.)

I found some striped card stock in my overflowing stash of Xmas papers and used it around the sides.  I added stickers, die-cut sentiments, sequins, and ribbons. 

It was so easy to turn a throw-away to a keeper, usable for holding my baked goods.

 I even decorated the bottom with the reverse side of the striped card stock.  Most of the supplies used were from my seemingly bottomless Xmas crafting stash.  The scalloped felt ribbon is a Martha Stewart product and the green ribbon with gold edging is a Heiko item from Celebrations.  I really like the gold glitter snowflakes from Sierra Pacific (sold at HM BFC)...there are so many snowflakes in that small vial! I hope that you will try upcycling your empty food boxes while you still have your Xmas supplies out. The holiday season will be rolling around again before you know it, so start decorating now. You'll be so happy next year when you find finished boxes, cards, and tags!

Multi-Colored Holly Christmas Card

I love playing with dyes on watercolor paper.  It's fun to sprinkle Color Burst powder pigments (from HM Ben Franklin Crafts) on damp paper and then spray on more water to see what amazing color blends appear.  I thought it would be fun to use my new Darice Holly die (purchased at HM Ben Franklin Crafts) to cut out some colorful holly.  Layered on some softly glittered silver paper, I think that the holly has a very festive look. (Sorry, I was not able to capture the special effect because of the camera flash on the card.)  

I used the Hero Arts die to cut the 'Christmas' out of green foil card stock (DCWV). For the inside of the card (not shown) I stamped the Lawn Fawn 'merry' in silver ink and heat embossed it with NUVO embossing powder.  This card was fairly easy to execute except for applying the sticky adhesive to the back of the holly.  I used the Xyron machine and it was a bit tricky to position the holly exactly.  Maybe next time I will use a spray adhesive. This card is for all of you in blogland.  I want all of you to know how much I appreciate your visits and comments. I wish the best to you this holiday season and hope that 'Santa' is generous to you because I know you've been 'GOOD' all year!

Lavender Soap for Holiday Gifts

 This past July we traveled to Hokkaido with some of our relatives.  The tour bus stopped at a well-known lavender farm.  Since I love the scent of lavender, I purchased some lavender oil, dried buds, and sprigs of  real lavender.  Way back in July, I was already planning to make soap to give to relatives at our annual holiday meal.  I was so pleased to discover that HM Ben Franklin Crafts now carries a complete line of soap making supplies including the large loaf mold.  I had to put approximately 40-50 drops of lavender oil and 30-40 drops of colorant in a batch (one tray) of microwavable goat soap base.  Before the soap hardened in the mold, I sprinkled on some lavender buds. First, I cut the cooled soap and then wrapped the soap bars in parchment paper. Next, I wrapped, glued and tied on burlap, Heiko ribbon and the lavender sprigs. (HM BFC has artificial lavender sprigs if you don't want to travel to Hokkaido to get real ones and there are lavender fields on Maui, too!  This project turned out just as I imagined it would...a rarity in my world...AND I have weeks to spare before passing them out. Now that's a first for me!  Hope your crafting is going merrily along!

Special Gifts from the HM BFC Locker Boxes

 Several years ago I placed a jade pendant similar to this one in my locker box at HM Ben Franklin Crafts.  My son and his girlfriend admired it, but before I could take it out from my locker box to give it to her... it sold!  I search long and hard to find another jade pendant and finally found an even better quality one at an antique show. Next I needed to find the cording in my jumble of jewelry supplies. The corded necklace was purchased from HM Ben Franklin Crafts (or maybe Fire Mountain Gems) and just required tying (and gluing the knots) to affix the pendant.  It was a simple project but with all the searching it took several years to complete. Finally, I can give it to the girl who is now my son's fiancee.  Hope you'll search the HM Ben Franklin Crafts locker boxes to find the perfect gift for that special person. Happy Christmas Shopping!

Scented Baked Goods Tags

 Its almost time to start baking my cookies for gift giving, but first I needed to make a stash of tags so I can quickly assemble the baked goodie bags. This year I discovered a really adorable Neat and Tangled stamp set which I used on the front of the tag before daubing Ranger Distress Oxide around the words and bear image.  A little water was sprayed on before flicking (with a brush) on silver Liquitex ink.  The bear image was colored with Copic pens  This gave the look of light snow falling. Glossy Accents was added to the bowl and Bo Bunny Pearlescents white to the frosting.

 Because I always end up with a lot of extra Vippie mini calendars, I decided this year I would stick them onto everything, even tags....LOL! Recipients can always tie them to drawer knobs or hang them in the car ...much easier to find a date than searching on your phone.  I added more cute images on foam dots to the tag backs. To give the tags a sweet fragrance, I rubbed some scented Honey Almond oil (from the HM Ben Franklin Crafts soap and candle making aisle) onto the red and white twine.  After using the snowflake paper on the calendar side of some of the tags, I decided since the calendar would be used all year I should put a non-holiday card stock on the back (like the one I found in the 6x6 Kaiser Craft paper pad). Too bad you can't smell my tags but I think you'd agree that scented tags really add to the excitement of Xmas goodie bags. Hope you make some scented tags and of course bake up some yummy treats for everyone!

Reindeer Hugs Tags

When I spied the Lawn Fawn 'Woodland Critters Huggers' die set I immediately thought of many uses for it.  This set suggests three different animals you can make: 1) a reindeer 2) a raccoon and 3) a fox.  I think you can create others....this reindeer could be a chipmunk if you eliminated the antlers.

To make my reindeer a little different I added a red sequin for the his nose (Rudolph has always been my favorite.),  the  green die cut Sizzix ' Hugs' and a  red and white twine loop. I  die cut a second brown body and cut off the arms so that the second body could be glued on to neaten up the back of the tag.  Oh yes, a light pink Copic pen was used to add some cheek blush.  I think this die set could also be adapted to make shaker tags or cards.  I think I'll try that when I'm not so bogged down with holiday crafting. Keep working....it's almost Xmas!

P.S.  Did you know that Santa must have used female reindeer for his flight from the North Pole because the male reindeer don't have antlers during the winter?

Snowglobe Shaker Ornament

 I've always love snowglobes so it was a no-brainer  that I had to purchase the Lawn Fawn 'Ready, Set, Snow' stamp and die sets.  Lawn Fawn has an easy to follow video of how to put the snowglobe ornament together so I won't go into details here.  I used printed card stock from a Kaiser Craft 6x6 pad that I purchased from HM Ben Franklin Crafts.

 I didn't like the way the side of the ornament looked because I didn't align the pieces neatly so I wrapped Heiko ribbon around the ornament and tied a knot at the top. The ends of the ribbon were glued together to make the ornament hanging loop. Snowflakes were plucked from a Darice Snowflake garland (HM BFC) and glued over the knot and on the back. The Merry Christmas label was heat embossed with Nuvo powder and cut out before attaching it to the ornament.  I filled the snowglobe with tiny snowflake sequins, micro-beads, and glitter. The back of the ornament was stamped with a Hero Arts stamp (purchased in a set from HM BFC) and room was left for names if I decide to use the shaker snowglobe for a gift tag.  Well, that's it for now....gotta make more tags, cards, and thank you notes. Happy Holidays!